Oliver Stone Back in the 9/11 Trenches

Oliver Stone is back in action. After a brief absence where he attempted to steer clear of highly-controversial subjects and politically charged themes with films like Any Given Sunday and the ill-advised (and ill-received) Alexander, the director is back to form with his newly announced project -- an adaptation of the book Jawbreaker by former CIA case officer Gary Bernstein.

The deal for Jawbreaker was announced a few days ago by Paramount Pictures, which also financed World Trade Center, and the pic will be Stone's next project for the studio. And even though Stone has attempted to distance himself from political themes of late, and insists that his film World Trade Center was "the least political" film he's ever made, there is no denying that Stone will generate some strong reactions with his choice of a screenwriter to pen the second draft of the Jawbreaker screenplay -- Cyrus Nowrasteh, producer/writer of ABC TV's controversial mini-series The Path to 9/11. The mini was sharply criticized by the Democrats in particular, even before it aired, for its assertions that President Clinton's inaction was partially to blame for the 9/11 attacks.

He is also sure to generate some strong reactions simply by taking on the adaptation of a book like Jawbreaker -- which among other things, details the accounts of Bush Administration officials inept handling of the search for Osama Bin-Laden during the toppling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In the book, Bernstein asserts that Bin-Laden was there at the time and that the US Military let him escape. This directly contradicts the Bush Administration's account of the events. Highly controversial subject matter if I've ever heard it.

In a recent Reuters article, Stone insists that Jawbreaker will be as non-political as World Trade Center and that his goal is to "create compelling drama, not a polemic" but its pretty hard to buy that statement when it comes from a man who's previous films include Salvador andJFK. It seems clear to me that no matter how much Oliver Stone tries to distance himself from politics and controversy, he eventually goes back to these types of stories because, deep down, these are the kinds of stories he wants to tell. I, for one, am glad that he does.